The Reality Check Episode 59

HIV Myths+Steven Novella Interview+Cocaine Money Myth

HIV myths

Part 1:

HIV facts and myths:
1: A lot of people just make HIV and AIDS the same thing when they talk, when they are completely different. HIV is a virus, and AIDS is a collection of illnesses. HIV is one cause of AIDS, but having HIV doesn't mean you have AIDS.
2: HIV can be spread through casual contact with a HIV individual. Not true, you can not get HIV through everyday contact. Shaking hands, drinking from the same glass, hugging, and things like that are all fine.
3: HIV cannot be transmitted through oral sex. This is wrong, it can be transmitted through oral sex. So no matter what, wear a condom. Transmission risk may be elevated in the case of open sores on the genitals and/or mouth, or significant gum disease or bleeding, when there is direct contact between semen and breaks in the skin or surface of the mouth.
4:When using needle drugs, not sharing hypodermic needles is adequate to prevent HIV. Using previously contaminated hypodermic needles or other "works" to divide a drug solution among drug injection partners can spread HIV.
5: HIV can be transmitted by mosquitos. This is not true at all; mosquitos may spread other diseases, but not HIV. When mosquitos bite a person , they do not inject the blood of a previous victim into the person they bite next. Mosquitos do, however, inject their saliva into their victims, which may carry disease such as dengue fever, malaria, yellow fever, or West Nile virus. However, HIV is not transmitted in this manner.
6: Showering after intercourse will prevent AIDS. So not true, it's just simply not true, it's retarded. In November 2005, Jacob Zuma, Deputy president of South Africa, drew widespread condemnation from AIDS activists when he revealed that he had unprotected intercourse with the plaintiff in his rape trail, whom he knew to be HIV-positive, and that he had showered after sex believing that this would reduce this chances of contracting AIDS.
There are a lot more of coure, but these are the more popular myths. There are others such as sleeping with a virgin will get rid of AIDS by transmitting it to the other person.

Steven Novella

Part 2:
Interview with Steven Novella!

Steven P. Novella is an American clinical neurologist, assistant professor and Director of General Neurology at Yale University School of Medicine. Novella is best known for his involvement in the skeptical movement. Novella's academic specialization is in neuromuscular disease, including more specifically, neuropathy, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, myasthenia gravis, and the treatment of neuropathic pain.

Novella received his medical degree from Georgetown University School of Medicine , completed his residency at Yale-New Haven Hospital, his fellowship at Yale University School of Medicine, and was board certified in 1998. Novella is a medical advisor to Quackwatch, an associate editor of the Scientific Review of Alternative Medicine, and the executive editor of the blog Science-Based Medicine. Among other topics, Novella has published on homeopathy and AIDS denialism. In 2009, he was the board chairman when the Institute for Science in Medicine Institute was founded. Novella is president and co-founder of the New England Skeptical Society and hosts that organization's podcast, The Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe. He writes the monthly Weird Science column for the New Haven Advocate and contributes to several blogs. Novella has also appeared on several television programs.Steven Novella was one of the first 200 to sign the Project Steve petition, a tongue-in-cheek parody of the list of "scientists that doubt evolution" produced by creationists.

Listen to the Interview here: The Reality Check Episode 59

Science Myth of the Week:

Does most currency have a little bit trace of cocaine in them?

OMG! Yes! Nearly nine out of ten bills circulating in the U.S. and its northern neighbor are tainted with cocaine, according to what's being called the most definitive research to date on the subject. What's more, researchers were surprised to find hints that more Americans are using the illegal drug, said study leader Yuegang Zuo of the University of Massachusetts in Dartmouth. In a similar study by the same team in 2007, 67 percent of U.S. bills were found to be tainted with cocaine. The new study puts the percentage at 85 to 95—a jump of roughly 20 percent, Zuo said. The drug gets on paper money during drug transactions and when people roll bills to snort cocaine powder, Zuo said. Stress spurred by the worldwide financial crisis may be driving people to abuse cocaine, one of the most common illegal drugs in the world, Zuo said in a phone interview. The new findings could "help raise public awareness about cocaine use and lead to greater emphasis on curbing its abuse," Zuo said in a follow-up email. Part of the reason the new study is so complete, Zuo said, is because the team used new equipment, a gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer, which doesn't ruin the money—allowing the scientists to test more bills without breaking the bank. The team collected banknotes from the Brazil, Canada, the U.S., China, and Japan. With 5.8 million people having used the drug at least once in 2007, the U.S. is the world's biggest cocaine market, according to the 2009 UN World Drug Report. Perhaps not surprisingly, then, the U.S.—along with Canada—had the highest percentage of cocaine-permeated bills in the study.

Of the 234 U.S. bills collected in 17 large and small cities, nearly 90 percent had traces of cocaine, especially in larger cities such as Baltimore, Boston, and Detroit. Ninety-five percent of the dollars found in Washington, D.C., had cocaine embedded in their fibers—among the highest in the study.  In keeping with their reputations for having relatively low rates of cocaine use, China and Japan yielded bills with relatively low levels of cocaine contamination. Asian drug-taking practices could conceivably be partly responsible for the lower percentages of cocaine-tainted bills. Zuo doesn't know, for example, whether Asian cocaine users inhale through rolled bills as many Western users do. "It is for sure that drug abuse in different countries and regions has different use patterns which may affect cocaine contamination on money," he said via email. Regardless of where you live, though, there's little chance of getting buzzed off your bills, Zuo said. Even in the U.S. and Canada, the concentrations are simply too small. - National Geographic